Title Page, Copyright

Table of Contents

Foreword

WHEN DAVID HUME began his History of England the undertaking
came, not from any sudden resolve nor as an entirely
new enterprise, but as one possibly contemplated thirteen years
before, in 1739, probably attempted several times thereafter, and...

The History of England

I. The Britons - Romans - Saxons - The Heptarchy - The kingdom of Kent - of Northumberland - of East-Anglia - of Mercia - of Essex - of Sussex - of Wessex

THE CURIOSITY, entertained by all civilized nations, of enquiring
into the exploits and adventures of their ancestors,
commonly excites a regret that the history of remote ages should
always be so much involved in obscurity, uncertainty, and contradiction...

THE KINGDOMS of the Heptarchy, though united by so recent
a conquest, seemed to be firmly cemented into one state under
Egbert; and the inhabitants of the several provinces had lost all
desire of revolting from that monarch, or of restoring their former...

THE FREEDOM, which England had so long enjoyed from the
depredations of the Danes, seems to have proceeded, partly
from the establishments, which that pyratical nation had obtained
in the north of France, and which employed all their superfluous...

Appendix I. The Anglo-Saxon Government and Manners

THE GOVERNMENT of the Germans, and that of all the northern
nations, who established themselves on the ruins of Rome,
was always extremely free; and those fierce people, accustomed to
independance and enured to arms, were more guided by persuasion...

IV. William the Conqueror

NOTHING COULD exceed the consternation which seized the
English, when they received intelligence of the unfortunate
battle of Hastings, the death of their king, the slaughter of their
principal nobility and of their bravest warriors, and the rout and
dispersion...

V. William Rufus

WILLIAM, sirnamed Rufus or the Red, from the colour of his
hair, had no sooner procured his father's recommendatory
letter to Lanfranc, the primate, than he hastened to take measures
for securing to himself the government of England. Sensible, that
a deed so...

VI. Henry I

AFTER THE ADVENTURERS in the holy war were assembled on
the banks of the Bosphorus, opposite to Constantinople, they
proceeded on their enterprize; but immediately experienced those
difficulties, which their zeal had hitherto concealed from them...

VII. Stephen

IN THE PROGRESS and settlement of the feudal law, the male
succession to fiefs had taken place some time before the female
was admitted; and estates, being considered as military benefices,
not as property, were transmitted to such only as could serve in the
armies, and...

VIII. Henry II

THE EXTENSIVE CONFEDERACIES, by which the European potentates
are now at once united and set in opposition to each
other, and which, though they are apt to diffuse the least spark of
dissention throughout the whole, are at least attended with this
advantage, that they...

IX. Henry II

As BRITAIN was first peopled from Gaul, so was Ireland probably from Britain; and the inhabitants of all these countries
seem to have been so many tribes of the Celtae, who derive their
origin from an antiquity, that lies far beyond the records of any
history or tradition...

X. Richard I

THE COMPUNCTION of Richard, for his undutiful behaviour
towards his father, was durable, and influenced him in the
choice of his ministers and servants after his accession. Those who
had seconded and favoured his rebellion, instead of meeting with
that trust and...

XI. John

THE NOBLE AND FREE genius of the ancients, which made the
government of a single person be always regarded as a species
of tyranny and usurpation, and kept them from forming any conception
of a legal and regular monarchy, had rendered them entirely
ignorant...

Appendix II. The Feudal and Anglo-Norman Government and Manners

THE FEUDAL LAW is the chief foundation, both of the political
government and of the jurisprudence, established by
the Normans in England. Our subject therefore requires, that we
should form a just idea of this law, in order to explain the state, as
well of that...

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